Reefmaster wasn't available for the original Mackeral Mayhem last Sunday so I took him out today for one of our own.
Despite a dodgy weather report of 10-20kn N/NE we headed out from Bribie at 5am after 2 slight setbacks.
1. I had left the winch handle for the trailer in the tow car from Sundays trip...lucky my tyre brace fits the nuts on the winch hey!
2. For some strange reason I had taken the keys from the boats ignition during the week and hung them on the key rack at home - normally they stay in the ignition - which meant that after we finally got the boat off the trailer using the tyre brace, I realized they were still hanging on the key rack at home! We had no way of starting the boat!
We tried every key on every keyring we could find with no luck...but you know those little tools that come in the box with a new reel? Hang on to those...they can come in real handy!
So off we went. Stopped at a few beacons with the tide just coming full. Both lost a few slugs to the razor gang even though they were very skitish.
I tried a weighted pillie in the eddy behing the pylon and BANG! Caught my first Mackeral in the new boat with several others shadowing him in but eventually choosing not to join their mate in the esky.
1 or 2 drifts past and the fish would disappear which meant we needed to keep moving from Beacon to Beacon (just like Brownie).
Anchored up to a beacon as the tide started going out and this proved much more profitable. A yellow tailed kingfish was hanging round the Beacon and following our slugs back to the boat but never striking. Threw out a weighted pillie with the same result. Jigged the pillie right infront of him and hey Presto... kingy grabs pillie, kingie takes off with pillie, kingy swims around the beacon, beacon and line are introduced to each
other, fishos swear at kingy.
To make matters worse he reappeared about an hour latter with my hooks still plainly visible in his gob.
Reefmaster jigged up some livies (you owe me 2 jigs) so we thought we should head outside and see what was happening.
After anchoring up Reefy threw out a livie on his 15-24kg Live Fibre with Penn 6/0 reel and 55lb mono. Rod bent double in the holder, peeled line then "twang". Whatever that was it was BIG.
I have exactly the same outfit but was using mullet fillets on 3 gangs - not a single taker except for a grinner the size of a bus.
Reefy was going through takle and livies at a great rate of knots and managed a Cod and a Mowong.
I hooked something HEAVY that refused to show its face even after 10 mins of "pump and wind". I'd get a little, it'd take it back - no idea what it was but it felt like a big ray. Eventually it bust me off.
The men in brown suits rocked up and really turned up the heat. 3 or 4 at a time and 6-8 feet long. We should have just emptied our tackle boxes over the side - would have been easier. 55lb trace - see ya! 150lb trace - bite off. Wire Trace - spit the hooks. The harder we tried the more they hurt us.
And every now and again we'd make it down through the sharks, cod, mowong and grinners and BAM! The great unknowns would bust us up all overagain. No idea what they were but with the drag fully locked up it looked like one of us was going to get pulled out the back of the boat when they hit.
As soon as the wind started to pick up the action stopped. We upped stumps and headed back to Bulwer for a nice legal squire and 1.4 million grinners.
All in all a bloody great day with some great fish, good company, fantastic weather, no-one else around,
some awsome fights and heaps of memorable bustoffs.
Looks like we'll both be heading down to Amart before the weekend!
"whats the time"
not often ya see conditions like that. 
Nice fish and piccys, Top Report keep it up. 